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Tag Archives: Alumni

We were able to track down a few of our Inly Middle School alumni from the Class of 2007 and collect some recent college graduation news.

Liam Detwiler (Inly ’07; Boston College High School ’11) graduated phi beta kappa from Georgetown University with a major in English and a double minor in history and sociology. He spent most of his time working on campus for the nation’s largest student-run credit union, where he became an executive of the operations department and helped manage over 17 million dollars in assets. He also helped to found a chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon on campus, was a part of the Georgetown student government, was the treasurer of a speechwriting club, and studied abroad at Trinity College in Dublin during his fall semester of junior year where he continued his love of travel by visiting 12 countries. Following graduation, Liam took a job as an internal, human capital consultant for Capital One where he will be working in Arlington, VA.

Lucy Johnson (Inly ’07; Dana Hall School ’11) graduated from Wheaton College this May. She was a studio art major with a concentration in sculpture and an ethnomusicology minor. She sang in Voices United to Jam, the gospel and R & B singing group on campus (for which she was also the secretary); played steel drums in the Lymin Lyons steel drum band; and danced in Paraiso Latino, the school’s Latin dance group. This summer she is interning at CATA (Community Access to the Arts), a non-profit arts organization in Great Barrington that offers music, dance and art workshops for people with special needs. She is also interning at Riverbrook, a residence for women with special needs in Stockbridge. In the fall Lucy hopes to move to Boston where she would like to work for an arts organization and/or work with the special needs population.

Hannah Kaplan-Hartlaub (Inly ’07; Commonwealth Academy ’11) just graduated from Smith College with a BA in Spanish and the sociology of education. She spent four years rowing for the Varsity Crew Team and dabbled in social justice organizing. She is spending the summer working at the Lucky Finn Cafe (go say hi!) and preparing to head off to Spain on a Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship in September.

Mike Kaplan-Hartlaub (Inly ’07; Cape Cod Academy ’11) recently graduated from Wheaton College with a major in psychology. While at Wheaton he joined the Best Buddies chapter and worked with children with developmental disabilities. Mike now works as a behavioral therapist at a psychological consulting firm called Applied Behavioral Analysis Consulting and Services (ABACS) that evaluates and provides treatment for children ages 4–18 with Autism Spectrum Disorder, in addition to other social and behavioral disorders.

Paul Kelly (Inly ’07; Boston College High School ’11) graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a dual degree in political science and philosophy. He was inducted into the national Phi Sigma Tau honor society for the latter. During his last two years, he served as elected community organizer for Student Programs for Urban Development and staffed four political campaigns for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. He graduates having written a thesis on presidential administration of executive agencies and a capstone on the discursive structures surrounding the Affordable Care Act debate. He is currently working on submitting a paper on Heidegger’s existential analytic for review through Phi Sigma Tau.

Rachel Laiosa (Inly ’07; Notre Dame Academy ’11) graduated from Providence College with two BA degrees, one in English and one in history. She is currently taking some time to catch up and travel before delving into her career path.

Brett Noble (Inly ’07; Northwood School ’11) graduated from Husson University with a bachelor’s in criminal justice and a minor in business. In his junior year as part of the environmental club, Brett lobbied the school board for a solar farm on campus. The proposal was accepted and will be built by 2025. For his senior year capstone, Brett and four other students wrote legislation regarding drone regulation that is now being looked at by the Maine House of Representatives.

Zoe Ovans (Inly ’07; Commonwealth Academy ’11) graduated phi beta kappa from Johns Hopkins University with a double major in English literature and cognitive science. She’s still in Baltimore now working as the manager of the Johns Hopkins Laboratory for Language Processing and Development.

Jeremy Phillips (Inly ’07; St. George’s School ’11) graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN in May with a dual degree in business and economics. Throughout his college career, Jeremy excelled in indoor and outdoor track and field. He was named Male Student-Athlete in the Southern Athletic Association several times and led his team to conference championships in 2013 and 2014. He broke two school records in the 100-meter dash and the 4×100 relay and qualified for the Division III NCAA National Championships in 2014 and 2015. [http://norwell.wickedlocal.com/article/20150604/SPORTS/150608071/2000/NEWS]

Jeremy is also an active member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, participated in overseas studies in Belgium, and interned in business and finance in Memphis and New York City. Jeremy will be participating in the client services internship program with Deloitte in Memphis this summer and will be returning to Rhodes in the fall to begin a graduate program in accounting.

Lindsay Silver (Inly ’07; Boston University Academy ’11) graduated cum laude from Haverford College with a major in English, and minors in computer science and Spanish. Her senior thesis was titled “The Ocean’s Indifference: Confronting Death in the Natural Landscape of Thoreau’s Cape Cod.” She is currently working at Haverford as a summer intern designing a website for the Haverford Library.

Tucker Meehan and Chris Ribaudo address the 8th grade students about life after Middle School.

Inly alums, Tucker Meehan ‘11 and Chris Ribaudo ‘11, both seniors at Thayer Academy, are spending 3 weeks at Inly School as part of their final high school internship experience. During their time on campus, they have worked with students at all levels, but most extensively with the students in Upper Elementary.

“Our first thought in returning to Inly was honestly, ‘wow, everything seems to much smaller!’” Chris remarked. “It’s also interesting to see things through a different, older lens now. The faculty members feel more like peers and it makes you realize how cool they are.”

“You also see how purposeful the programming is,” said Tucker. “You can see that it’s a long process from start to finish and that each child is constantly building on his own knowledge throughout that process.”

“I’ve also noticed that seeing all of the classroom materials again has sparked so many memories for me,” said Chris. “And it’s amazing how all of the lessons come back, too.”

Tucker will be attending Colby College in the fall and hopes to study Economics and/or Biology. Chris will be attending Northeastern University and plans to pursue Chemical Engineering. The two also spoke to Inly’s 8th grade class about what to expect in high school, how the transition can feel, and anticipating the change in workload, sports, and other student activities. “Inly teaches you because it prepares you,” Tucker states. “I don’t think any Middle School has a class called “Independent Thinking” but that’s exactly what you take away from your time at Inly. And you can apply that to anything going forward.”

We recently caught up with Inly alumnus, Hannah Kaplan-Hartlaub ‘07, who is graduating from Smith College this May. Kaplan-Hartlaub, a Sociology and Spanish double major, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Spain, where she will spend next year teaching English at a high school in Madrid. While not teaching, she will also help coach the high school’s Model United Nations team and conduct an independent community service project through the network of community gardens in Madrid. “ I’ll be working with the Urban Garden Network of Madrid to do an independent community service project,” Kaplan-Hartlaub said, “which marries my interests in experiential learning, community-building, and playing in the dirt—all things I can I trace back to my time at Inly School.”

Hannah’s love of the Spanish language prompted her to study abroad last year at the University of Cordoba and also inspired her to pursue the Fulbright program in Spain after graduation. Fulbright grantees are selected through an open and merit-based competition. This ensures that the most qualified applicants are fairly chosen in a way that contributes to the main goals of the program: to provide overseas experience to individuals not previously afforded such an opportunity and to promote mutual understanding and benefit through contributions to both host and home communities.

From its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has fostered bilateral relationships in which citizens and governments of other countries work with the U.S. to set joint priorities and shape the program to meet shared needs. The English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Programs place Fulbrighters in classrooms abroad to provide assistance to the local English teachers. ETA’s help teach English language while serving as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. The age and academic level of the students varies by country, ranging from kindergarten to university level.

When asked about her goals for the program, Kaplan-Hartlaub said,

“Primarily, I aim to teach English for student use with cross-cultural engagement and perspective—in other words, to afford my students the opportunity to explore the world with the facility that English makes possible. I’m also eager to explore the country further and contribute through community service. I hope my volunteering in urban gardens will foster tighter neighborhood community and local connection to the earth, and to begin a dialogue around urban agricultural practices and food culture. This would further my goal of having a true exchange of knowledge and culture with the Madrileña community.”

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program is sponsored and managed by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Fulbright ETAs are placed in classrooms abroad to assist in strengthening English language instruction, while providing insights on American culture. At the same time, U.S. participants experience intensive cross-cultural interaction in an international educational setting.

Kaplan-Hartlaub reflected that her Inly roots in education “drew out the spirit of exploration” within her:

“While my years at Commonwealth School and then Smith contributed greatly [to this spirit] as well,” she observed, “I always consider Inly to have planted the seed of curiosity. From a young age we worked with teachers and with each other to cultivate our passions, and though the sowing was challenging, the harvest was fruitful and will fortify me during the coming adventures….I hope the Fellowship will allow me to connect further with students and teachers in a new academic setting, and would provide a cross-cultural comparison to inform my interpretations of educational policies in the States upon my return.”

The Inly Development Office recently caught up with Ava Vitali (Inly School ’98, Thayer Academy ’02, and New York University ’06 and ‘09) to learn about her internship at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Ava’s path to her current field shows how Inly students turn their love of learning into a lifelong pursuit.

Q: Describe your internship.

Ava: I currently work in two different functions in the museum. I work as a curatorial intern in the Art of the Ancient World Department three days a week. I also am working for Member and Visitor Services, which is working front lines with the public and members—including general museum information, public programs, courses and lectures, group visits, joining the museum, and even selling admission.

Q: Describe a typical day for you at the museum.

As an intern, my days vary a lot. I am basically there to fill any role the department might need. I have been involved in everything from new gallery installations and organizing academic symposiums, to brushing the dust off busts of Hadrian in the gallery.

Q: What is one of the best things about your work?

I spend one day a week dedicated to working for the Giza Archives, a separate project here at the museum. In this capacity I work down in the storeroom with objects for five hours every Wednesday, and I couldn’t be happier. I really enjoy working with objects, whether monumental or small every day things. I spend most of my time trying to solve issues with our data and databases by referencing both archival material and the objects themselves.

Also, being at the museum at the same time as the major exhibition, The Secrets of Tomb 10A (which is Egyptian material), has been really rewarding for me. The show has just been extended to June 27, because it is so popular. I already had a few classes from my high school, Thayer Academy, come back and tour the show with me; it is nice to meet with people who remind you of yourself at that age. I am looking forward to Inly’s visit.

Q: How did you get interested in Egyptology?

My mother is an artist and we spent a lot of time at the MFA when I was young. I was always drawn to the Egyptian galleries. I guess you could say it was in my blood though, because both my mother and grandmother had an appreciation for Egyptian art. I was always interested in Egyptology and archaeology throughout childhood and into high school. It wasn’t until I went to college, though, that I really realized I could study Egyptology professionally, rather than just as a casual interest.

Q: What was your educational/career path to this field?

Once I realized I wanted to focus on Egyptology/Archaeology in college, I had to create my own major. Even though we had two Egyptologists teaching 12 different undergraduate Egyptology classes at NYU, there was no official undergraduate major. So I had to petition the dean to get credit, and for other things, like getting Hieroglyphs counted as fulfilling the language requirement and getting my excavation experience counted for credit. In the end I was successful, and ended up also double majoring and getting a degree in Anthropology/Classics as well.

I went on to graduate school at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and completed my Master’s Degree in Art History and Archaeology in 2009. After that, I knew I wanted to move back home to the Boston area, and started looking for opportunities in the Egyptology field around here. It’s such a competitive field, with so few openings, that I got lucky to connect with the people here at the MFA, especially when they had a major exhibition opening.

Q: How did your time at Inly prepare you for this work?

I was really encouraged during my time in elementary at Inly to pursue the subjects that interested me—this was great because it happened to coincide with our Ancient History units, and I really got to research and explore the ancient world in a way that wouldn’t have been possible elsewhere. Also, I think the Montessori education requires a certain amount of independence and academic ambition—both attributes that you need to be successful in the competitive world of graduate studies.

Q: What do you see yourself doing next?

Right now I feel like I’d like to go back for my PhD, but there are a lot of other great opportunities out there too in the field. I’m really open to anything that might come along. It’s such a competitive field that whatever opportunity comes to me, I’d be excited and happy to take.

Q: Do you have a memory of Inly that came up as a result of this experience?

I have a lot of memories of Inly, since I went there for 12 years, and many are connected to the ancient world and my studies of it, since that’s where I really got started. I distinctly remember being assigned reports on the Egyptian gods, and insisting on taking a lesser known deity, because the other ones were too easy and too well known. It turns out the goddess I selected is an enigmatic figure that even the most accomplished scholars today have trouble fully explaining—but that didn’t stop me from trying to back then, and I gave a report on her all the same (I still have a copy of it and it is hilarious). Also, I remember painting tiles to decorate the building in celebration of its anniversary. If you look to the right of the entrance you’ll still see mine mounted on the wall, labeled with my name, and painted with images of the Nile, pyramids, and Egyptian symbols.

Q: Any other comments or thoughts you would like to share?

I’d just really encourage students to pursue what they love. It’s important to realize that even if they aren’t able to only focus on that one thing in their elementary or high school studies that once they get to college they can really dive into whatever makes them passionate again and to not lose sight of that. Also, I’m always willing to answer questions about what I do or Egypt in general and people should feel free to contact me at afv209@nyu.edu, or avitali@mfa.org.

[Postscript: Ava just got word that she was admitted to the PhD program in Archaeology at Boston University. Congratulations!]

Inly recently checked in with Anna Cooper (Inly School ’04, Commonwealth School ’08) to learn about her trip to Nepal after graduating from high school. Anna’s experience and insightful words about her trip show one way that the inspired, involved and aware students of Inly bring their experiences with them as they move on.

Q: Why did you go to Nepal?

Anna: After graduating from high school, I felt I needed time outside an academic setting to explore and get better sense of the world and my interests in it, and so I decided to take a year off before going to college. I knew when I started planning that on top of anything I might do individually, I wanted a culminating and more structured experience as part of my year, which is why I began looking at gap year programs. I settled upon Where There Be Dragons, the program that took me to Nepal, because they focus on authenticity, on teaching young people how to be travelers and citizens of the world, interested in and sensitive to the multiplicities of different cultures and societies.

Q: What were your first impressions of the country? The people?

Anna: It’s difficult now to say what struck me first about Nepal, except that whatever else I was feeling, I also felt profoundly settled, as if I had finally arrived in the right place at the right time. I don’t mean to infuriate, but Nepal is really beyond my descriptive powers. There is a multiplicity to life there, a non-dualist kind of thought and lifestyle that is alien to those of us who have grown up in the West with clear ideas of personal property, identity, inherent value, and mandated ethics. I do not mean to say these things do not exist there, rather that they exist in a less rigid way.

Maybe because there is so little infrastructure, life seems to flow in a much more entangled organic way, constantly colliding and rearranging so that no plans are ever really settled. To be more concrete, the people are mainly fun, kind, and incredibly hospitable, though many are also pressured by poverty, massive water shortages and political instability. The city of Kathmandu is extremely polluted and suffering greatly from overpopulation. The people live with major water and power shortages on a daily basis, adapting their lifestyle to suit their resources. Still, it has a kind of beauty that comes of it’s visceral quality, of the endless smells, commotion, vibrancy and dust. If you are interested in a more in depth view I would recommend looking at the Where There Be Dragonswebsite, where current and former students post stories and descriptions of their experiences abroad.

Q: How did people respond to you and your group?

Anna: I traveled in a group of 12 students and 3 instructors, all of whom but our Nepali instructor Sweta, happened to be Caucasian, but I could not presume to describe the mix of feeling towards white westerners in Nepal. All I can relate are my own experiences, which were almost entirely positive. People were curious about us, even in the capital Kathmandu, we were an entirely foreign sight, with our non-traditional clothing (though Nepali youth are beginning to adopt western clothing styles as well), pale skin and relatively giant stature. We took up a lot of space, on the street, in the buses, even in our kitchens at home, and in a city that suffers greatly from overpopulation, that made us all the more conspicuous.

There is a kind of dual attitude toward western foreigners in general; first, that they are comparatively wealthy and do not know their way around Nepal and hence provide a good money earning opportunity, and second, that they have far more experience in the broader world and are therefore probably superior in knowledge. These two ideas are not entirely compatible, since one encourages swindling and the other a kind of reverence toward western culture. Many Nepali people are becoming increasingly familiar with the ideals and customs of western culture, and yet for many of them we were among the few westerners they had talked to extensively.

We did our best to learn and acclimate to Nepali customs, so that we might better understand the meaning and purpose behind them. The differences between American and Nepali culture, at their most generic, are too many and too complex to understand from a brief description. Suffice it to say, in most instances the contrast in culture was met with kindness, immense hospitality, and usually a teasing sense of humor.

Q: What kind of impact did your work have on the community there?

Anna: While my program was not heavily community service based, we did organize and participate in a few community oriented projects and the organization Where There Be Dragons as a whole tries to be a sustainable source of in country support. During our first week in Nepal, after a brief orientation period, we lived and worked for four days in what began as a leper colony and has transformed into an eco village that includes an orphanage, school, and health clinic, and provides housing, community and work for people with disabilities and long term and sometimes stigmatized diseases, such as leprosy. While there we helped harvest the fields that support the village, made food for ourselves and the inhabitants, taught at the school, helped look after the disabled children, worked at the clinic changing bandages, and aided in various other jobs.

Working with these people, both those who chose to work for the organization and those who lived there out of necessity, almost all of whom, were kind and welcoming and amazingly joyful, was an incredible way to transition into Nepal. This village was run by an organization called Shanti Sewa Griha, which has other locations throughout Nepal, one of which I worked at while living in Kathmandu. Their Kathmandu location is a much larger free clinic, with a work focus on producing traditional Nepali crafts, that they then sell abroad to generate funds. They are able to provide a safe environment and employment for poorer or disabled Nepali people, mainly women, producing these crafts.

We also spent a little over a week in a mountain village, living with families and working on a pipeline that would run water from a nearby mountain spring down to the toilets in their schoolhouse, allowing the students to stay longer in school and in better hygiene. The effort and devotion that the men, and especially the women and children, some from outside of the village, put into this project was both daunting and inspiring.

Q: What would you like to see happen next there?

Anna: Nepal is an incredibly diverse country, both environmentally and culturally. It is home to over a hundred dialects, several distinct ethnic groups, and two main religions, though others are certainly practiced, and each has many sects. Over the last century, diverse political opinions have risen in response, the clearest example being the only recently ended 10 year civil war. All these forms of diversity, not the least of which are the impassible geographical obstacles, deter attempts at a stable and inclusive infrastructure. However, I am not nearly well educated enough to suggest what Nepal could or should do. There are many incredibly talented Nepali people as well as foreigners, working in areas of social entrepreneurship and government facing these and many other problems, and I highly suggest looking into what they have to say, and seeing if you can get involved.

Q: What are your plans for the future – both immediate (school, etc.) and regarding this project?

Anna: Right now I am a freshman at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, with an undecided major. My experiences in Nepal definitely honed my priorities and helped me to think about what I want my future to entail. At the moment I am considering several options, including studying religion more closely, something I would probably not have considered before traveling through Nepal. I am hoping I can find a way to retain my language skills, and I am definitely planning to return to Nepal after graduating. I hope to travel more extensively through other areas in Asia, focusing on cultural studies and community aid projects.

Q: Do you have a memory of Inly that came up as a result of this experience?

Anna: One night I was in my home in Kathmandu trying to entertain my four year old “niece” with my rudimentary Nepali skills, asking her questions about school and her favorite things. She grew bored with answering my questions, and worried that she would run off to distract my older “sister” as she often did, I asked her to sing me a song. She burst into a wonderful school song, a mashup of English and Nepali that sounded something like a nationalist anthem and pragmatic lullaby combined, demonstrating an elaborate dance alongside.

Afterward she ran up to me and begged for something in return. I thought for a few minutes about what I had to offer up even remotely equal to her performance. Then I pulled from the distant past, the complete lyrics and sign language gestures for “Beauty of the Light.” She watched me in fascination, trying to match my hand motions, and afterward we exchanged signs for dance moves.

The dislocation struck me at the time, a staple piece of my childhood floating back to the surface in the strangest of locations at the oddest time. But it seemed fitting to me as well, since the message in that song is something deeply embedded in the Montessori style of education, an education that helped shape me into who I am, into a person that sought out those experiences and knew to appreciate them.